Building the Princess - HJ60 build blog. (2 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Time to work out if this H55F has any obvious issues or not, I've had it sitting in my shed for a couple of years.. the seller had acquired it at some point and didnt know much about it.. could be toast, could be go

View attachment 3179792

View attachment 3179793
also gonna enjoy how you tackle the h55. I have one apart, all gears engage and teeth look good.

Drivetech have a seal bearing kit for transfer and trans. The kit use to be $700 for the two but, now about $1k...kind of be handy to do the synchros whilst she is out too.

I feel a bit more confident tackling the gear box after pulling apart a steer box and putting it together. Toyota really is service friendly.

Shame you are not down the road, would love to be giving you hand. Same page.
 
Shame you are not down the road, would love to be giving you hand. Same page.

Thanks I appreciate that sentiment.

I suspect this H55F is toast, I peered down the gearstick hole late last night and I suspect there's corrosion in there.. I am going to pull the top plate off tonight and start taking a closer look.

I am tempted to buy a brand new H55F.. getting a price now. Rebuild of this one will be likely be expensive just for parts alone. No tearing hurry, we do this right!
 
Well.. thats toast. I've had it in the shed for a couple of years. Bought it on a whim and was hoping it was a reasonable one.. Now the decision is new or second hand/rebuild.. The top cover is coming off any second hand one before I hand any cash over in future.

New: $AUD3200 delivered.
Second hand.. $750 for a box + rebuild costs which will likely be over $2000 if outsourced. If tackled in house at least $1000 worth of parts.

1669838522947.png
 
Well.. thats toast. I've had it in the shed for a couple of years. Bought it on a whim and was hoping it was a reasonable one.. Now the decision is new or second hand/rebuild.. The top cover is coming off any second hand one before I hand any cash over in future.

New: $AUD3200 delivered.
Second hand.. $750 for a box + rebuild costs which will likely be over $2000 if outsourced. If tackled in house at least $1000 worth of parts.

View attachment 3182033
yep looks toast from here! $3200 for a new box delivered is pretty cheap, where is that from?
 
I might not have a transmission but I have a real pretty bellhousing..

1670049758365.png
 
I might not have a transmission but I have a real pretty bellhousing..

View attachment 3184208
I have been doing my aluminium too, lots of wire wheelin. Must admit though, been painting after clean up with killrust epoxy aluminium paint. The aluminium just stains and oxidizes again real quick otherwise. Some folks use a polyurethane clear I believe.
 
Inspected, clean and tested fitted one of the doors that came with the body.. its in spectacularly good condition. Digging the decals.. I'm definitely going to go with replacement decals that have some red in them. The silver, black, and red decals on the silver with the pimped out chrome rims really works I think.

Also.. today I learnt there's some subtle differences between top and bottom door hinges and left and right hinges - this took a bit of figuring out lol. Having another HJ60 that can be referenced makes things easier.

Closed door respray of the doors, bonnet and rear tailgate at the very end of the project. Thankfully the doors are already the correct colour - brown bonnet though :(



1670123736601.png
 
Inspected, clean and tested fitted one of the doors that came with the body.. its in spectacularly good condition. Digging the decals.. I'm definitely going to go with replacement decals that have some red in them. The silver, black, and red decals on the silver with the pimped out chrome rims really works I think.

Also.. today I learnt there's some subtle differences between top and bottom door hinges and left and right hinges - this took a bit of figuring out lol. Having another HJ60 that can be referenced makes things easier.

Closed door respray of the doors, bonnet and rear tailgate at the very end of the project. Thankfully the doors are already the correct colour - brown bonnet though :(



View attachment 3184782
flash, even your wheel hubs are disco! could call her 'night fever' too.:cool:
 
Decisions decisions.. do I go with this factory front bumper and bullbar that I've had squirrelled away for a few years - a nice gloss black powder coat perhaps. Despite appearances its in very good condition. It looks tougher than I expected it to.

1670309749720.png

1670312276674.png
 
Last edited:
yep looks toast from here! $3200 for a new box delivered is pretty cheap, where is that from?
There's a guy who works for a Toyota Dealer in Sydney that brings a few in from time to time.. Daniel Dietrich.
 
Decisions decisions.. do I go with this factory front bumper and bullbar that I've had squirrelled away for a few years - a nice gloss black powder coat perhaps. Despite appearances its in very good condition. It looks tougher than I expected it to.

View attachment 3186326
View attachment 3186331
Pre weld your spotty tabs and an antenna one or two, and satin black powder coat (lonsdale powder coaters) and that will look great with those wheels!
 
Pre weld your spotty tabs and an antenna one or two, and satin black powder coat (lonsdale powder coaters) and that will look great with those wheels!

Good plan on the spotlight tabs, I might measure up the BCF ones and see where they'd fit nicely.
 
This is the rear tow setup.. beefy A.F.. A bit farmer spec and the receiver has had a cover welded on it with the tow tongue welded below that. A tiny bit of damage can be seen to the body work above the tow point - the attempt to raise the body up with a highlift jack caused this :( I shall fix it. After seeing this photo I think I might get the grinder out and tidy those welds up that the Farmer was too lazy to deal with.. A new 7 Pin Plug, and a nice shiny tow ball will be essential, along with a factory rear bumper when I find one in good condition.



1670354366011.png
 
Well.. today I've rolled the dice again on an H55F.. $750 from a local wrecker, he was not prepared to let me pull the top hat off to take a look (fair enough, he doesnt know me from a bar of soap) I managed to get a very good look down the gear stick whole with a bore scope though and it looks good.. no signs of corrosion, very clean looking, no obvious damage to the gears I could get eyes on, it goes into all gears, the transfer case selects H2/H4/N/L4 and the two bushes at the bottom of the stick were in near new looking condition so I don't think its done a great deal of work. The oil that came out of it was reasonably clean with no sign of water and the magnets on the drain plugs had nothing of concern. Everything looks positive with this H55F. Pressure washed and refilled with clean 80W90, cycled through the gears to get everything oily. A bit of a cleanup and it'll be ready to mate up to the engine.


I am going to disassemble and reassemble the rusty H55F as a technical exercise before I stow it away, never know what parts might be needed off it..


The 1987 Falcon XF Ute comes in handy for picking stuff up and the new gantry a super addition for unloading the ute. A complicated choreography of vehicle movements required though. I had to move the red HJ60 (part time daily) to get the blue Troopy (spare tourer) out in order to get the yellow Troopy (main tourer) out to get access to the gantry..

1670644523540.png


1670644552290.png


1670644572980.png


1670644672781.png
 
Paying tribute to this little fella who was with me for 14 years but who succumbed to illness during the week, we're not really sure what, he was 14 and getting slower and slower with bad arthritis - his mobility took a huge dive during the week, he was off and his food, and incontinence issues had been developing and it was his time to go :( . A naughty little dog, but a faithful one! He'll be missed.

1670645000247.png
 
A bit of progress.. transmission installed to engine, and the whole lot is ready to go into the chassis over the Christmas break.. I have four days off so that'll give me a good chance to do a big clean up around the workshop and yard prior to bringing the vehicle out to the gantry to get the engine in. Its always such a sweet feeling when you feel the tip of the input shaft seat home into the spigot bearing!


1671187180248.png
 
A bit of progress.. transmission installed to engine, and the whole lot is ready to go into the chassis over the Christmas break.. I have four days off so that'll give me a good chance to do a big clean up around the workshop and yard prior to bringing the vehicle out to the gantry to get the engine in. Its always such a sweet feeling when you feel the tip of the input shaft seat home into the spigot bearing!


View attachment 3194771
rocketing ahead Duncan!, my teenagers tend to take my build time..
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom